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Night and Day: What Morpheus8 Cool Felt Like on My Own Face

Black and white photograph of a woman in a dark robe reclining in a treatment chair in a dim studio, seen from behind, a single hard light tracing her cheekbone and jaw. Illustrative image, not a patient. Frank Agullo, MD, FACS.

Morpheus8 is one of the most popular treatments we perform in our med spa. The only drawback was that it is a procedure that can be painful for some individuals, or when we’re treating multiple body areas.

Morpheus8 Cool changes that dramatically. The treatments are the same, the depth of treatment is the same, the power is the same. It just makes the procedure so much more comfortable.

I Had It Done First

I myself had to try it before deciding to offer it in our med spa and in our surgery center. When I tried it, it was night and day. The pain level I perceived was a one or two out of ten, without any topical anesthesia or medications on board. This made the treatment a lot faster. I noticed less swelling of the tissues because of the cooling technology. I did feel a little, almost needle-like sensation every so often, but very tolerable. I also noticed that the handpiece vibrates as it’s performing the treatment, so that camouflages the pain even further.

One of the people who made Morpheus8 so popular is Kim Kardashian. You can actually see my first treatment on Instagram as well, and although I’m not as popular, I think you’ll enjoy it.

What You Feel

You will feel the cool head of the applicator on your face. You will feel some vibration, and every now and then you may feel a small needle prick, similar to when you get Botox.

In terms of recovery, you may have some redness depending on how aggressive the treatment is and the depth of the treatment, and you may feel some itchiness or mild burning on the skin. Depending on the depth and aggressiveness of the treatment, the recovery could be anywhere between 24 and 48 hours, at which time you’ll start noticing the results. You will see the skin is smoother and tighter, the pores are smaller, and the skin looks refreshed.

Nothing Was Traded Away

It’s important to realize that Cool has the same power and effectiveness as the latest Morpheus8. There are several versions of Morpheus8, and we’ve always had the latest one, which includes Burst, which can treat multiple layers with each activation. So the difference between Morpheus8 and Morpheus8 Cool really is that it is much more comfortable. Everything else is the same.

Morpheus8 will not be replaced, because we can still use it in the operating room when the patient is under general anesthesia or IV sedation and won’t experience the pain related to the procedure. But in the med spa, I really don’t think any patient is going to choose Morpheus8 over Morpheus8 Cool, because it’s just so much more comfortable and just as powerful.

We still recommend two to three sessions with Morpheus8 Cool. It’s also one of the few treatments that has successfully treated festoons, which can be very stubborn.

Pricing is the same as Morpheus8 and is on the fees page. The full write-up, with the comparison table and the festoons section, is on the Southwest Plastic Surgery site.

Why Me

Double board-certified, Mayo Clinic trained, Clinical Associate Professor of Plastic Surgery at Texas Tech, Castle Connolly Top Doctor 2014 through 2026. I run the device in the operating room and in the med spa, and I was the first face in my practice to get the Cool version.

Ready to Talk?

Call (915) 590-7900, text 1-866-814-0038, or book online. #StayBeautiful

Find me at @RealDrWorldWide on Instagram, TikTok, and Snapchat, @Agullo on X, or @AgulloPlasticSurgery on Facebook.

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It Does Not Dissolve. It Disperses.

Black and white photograph of a person in a dark jacket seen from directly behind, standing at a tall window in hard morning light with one hand raised to the side of the face, the room around them in shadow. Illustrative image, not a patient. Commentary by Frank Agullo, MD, FACS.

Ask an injector how long under-eye filler lasts and you will hear “about a year.” That is true of the result. It is not true of the product.

“Fillers over time have started to come out of favor, as we are now noticing that the filler really never dissolves. The results can last about a year, but the filler does not dissolve, it just disperses.”

It disperses into the one place on the face that cannot afford it.

“I have seen cases where it blocks the lymphatic drainage, and patients start having bags under the eyes, which are worse in the mornings, or they have discoloration or lumpiness. Sometimes they can also get inflamed. So I have dissolved a lot of under-eye fillers in order to improve all these complications, and that is why I am more inclined to use fat rather than hyaluronic acid fillers.”

Worse in the mornings. If that sentence describes you and you had filler under the eyes a few years ago, that is the first thing I will look for.

So what do I put there?

“The tear trough is a very common area that we inject. My preference is the patient’s own fat, as it gives us a lasting result. It is done in the operating room, and I use cannulas to inject right above the inferior orbital rim. It softens the tear trough and gives us long-lasting results.”

Fat is what was there before it left. I wrote about how grafting works and how much of it stays in Fat Transfer 101. For a patient who wants the exam room and not the operating room, there is a donor fat graft.

“We can also use Lipoderma, which is a donor fat graft. This comes already prepared in a vial, so it can be injected in the office in one of the exam rooms, and it gives a lot of the same benefits as using your own graft. These benefits are that the results are soft, very long-lasting, and very natural.”

Either way, no needle.

“I prefer to use a cannula in this area, as it decreases the chance of bruising from piercing a vessel, or even intravascular injection.”

Same argument I made about hands. Thin skin, vessels near the surface, a blunt tip that slides past them. And if you want to know what a sharp tip in the wrong place looks like, the 60-minute window covers it.

Now the part nobody selling filler says out loud. Some under-eyes should not be injected with anything.

“Patients with festoons, thin skin, and true fat herniation are not the greatest candidates for fillers under the eyes. Fat is one of the procedures we perform when treating the periorbital area, and just adding volume to the tear trough can hide the under-eye bags for a while. But as they keep progressing, it comes to a point where adding volume is not going to help, and we actually need to remove those herniated fat pads.”

A real bag is fat pushing forward. You can hide it next to more volume for a while. Then it wins, and the answer is a lower lid operation, not a fourth syringe.

Festoons are their own problem.

“Festoons are frustrating because they are very difficult to remove completely. They are a combination of edema or swelling in the area, skin retraction from the facial ligaments, and loose skin. We can usually improve them, and in some cases remove them, using Morpheus8 microneedling with radiofrequency, and it often takes more than one treatment to repair this area. Sometimes it just has to be done surgically with a midface lift.”

Put filler in a festoon and you have made a heavier festoon.

So the order is: diagnose, dissolve what should not be there, and then, if the problem really is a hollow, fat. The full write-up with the three options side by side is on the Southwest Plastic Surgery blog.

It does not dissolve. It disperses. Plan accordingly.

Call (915) 590-7900, text 1-866-814-0038, or book at agulloplasticsurgery.com. #StayBeautiful

Find me at @RealDrWorldWide on Instagram, TikTok, and Snapchat, @Agullo on X, or @AgulloPlasticSurgery on Facebook.